(4 of n) My email closed with:
Please don't be complicit in this. I don't want a life time of memories of you erased by "My uncle supported ethic cleansing and the abduction of children". You are better than this.
Love,
-Eric
(5 of n): My uncle responded with:
Would you like the definition of ILLEGAL?
"Stay in Mexico and there is no problem right?
Cross into USA and get separated.
Simple
Build a huge wall and no separation.
Cross into USA and mega-separation
Simple
They are ILLEGALS
your bama did catch and release - worthless idiot allowed MS 13 in.
Remember all the angle parents - they are permantly separate by ILLEGALS
No more of this leftist propaganda."
(6 of n): I wrote back to my uncle:
Four year old children are being abducted from their families for the misdemeanor crime of being with parents who crossed the border without documentation?
And that justifies destroying these families forever? Many of these children will never be reunited with their families.
Why are you defending this?
(7 of n): My uncle responded with:
"Please stop
What about all the aborted babies that you demonorats enthusiastically cheer to their death
Selective outrage over ILLEGALS
No outrage over babies RIPPED from a womb - give me a break
Please stop
I don't want to hear your pious ranting while demonorats support abortion
Im just going to delete any more from you until you denounce abortion"
(8 of n): The whole exchange with my uncle ended with my response:
I will be happy to discuss abortion (again) elsewhere.
We must put a sharper point on this:
The federal government has sentenced children to an entire lifetime without their parents...
...for a misdemeanor they didn’t commit.
If you want to block me and break off all contact with me, I can't and won't stop you.
Sorry to bother you, but this whole thing is awful beyond words.
Love,
-Eric
(9 of n): Sorry to repeat my uncle's vile responses here.
But this whole exchange made something crystal clear to me. We're in a "pre-genocidal" moment.
My uncle has been sufficiently brainwashed to accept any horror or level of violence that right wing media demands that he accepts.
What can we do about this?
@ekansa I have no answers but I have felt a marked reduction in my desire to see and talk to some in my family. So either agree to still meet and not talk about politics, or don't talk at all, or be prepared for some serious shouting that won't end well. I picked option 1.
@ekansa But think about this, magnified by a few million people. Where will it end? Civil war? And then what, after the war? People will still be there. But now finally we will learn to be quiet. The Nazis are still judges, the Slave Owners are still mayors, many Croats and Serbs are still alive, but so many are dead and some people will wonder: was this bloodshed really worth it?
@ekansa That's why I think we need to be careful. Go for the politicians. Go for the streets. Demonstrate, write, shout, but if you make it personal, confrontative, individual, what then: will you punch your family? Will somebody in the family pull a weapon if you keep escalating? So yeah, we can stop all contact with the other side, but that will also not heal any wounds. I keep wondering about that: how will we find our way back from the brink?
No. Punching family. Keep polite even if they scream insults at you. But don't back down.
@ekansa One way to find back from the brink is to keep in touch. Focus on the things we can share. Hiking. BBQ. Kids playing. Smalltalk. It's not much.
@kensanata yes, but still don't back down.
That said, an effective strategy may not be direct confrontation. Obliquely getting a point across with finesse may work the best.
@ekansa I agree with don't back down. But in this case you sent your uncle the email, first, right? When my dad sent me that email about muslims praying on the streets of New York and the police protecting them I wrote to him: don't ever send me any such emails again. And he didn't. And I still visit him. And we still go hiking. I think that was a good-enough outcome. It wasn't good. But it was better than breaking off all contact.
The Slave Owners may be mayors, but at least there are fewer slaves.
I'm not advocating hate, but I am advocating confrontation.
@ekansa I'm just not sure how much it helps. I don't think I ever managed to change anybody's mind using that tactic. Or any tactic, I fear. And if you're not going to change their mind, why bother as long as there are other options?
I'm all ears for improved approaches. I don't pretend to think I've figured it out. I need something that works for the long term.
@kensanata BTW: Gotta run now. Offline world is calling me...
@kensanata
Well yep. If "should we abduct children and cage them in for-profit concentration camps" becomes a wedge issue that disrupts family pleasantries, then any family gathering has reached a profound level of dysfunction.
I'd prefer to confront the problem head on. Otherwise what relation are you actually saving? That and kids will still end up in concentration camps.